


Friendships and Hardships

by RedBlackDragon



Series: The Path Forward [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Garrison - Freeform, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), I guess... for a short time, Kerberos Mission, More tags to be added, Original Garrison Trio, Shifter AU, Stripper Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:28:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22037836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedBlackDragon/pseuds/RedBlackDragon
Summary: Keith had gotten a second chance from Shiro and he is determined to use it. Finally part of the Garrison Keith is learning about new things he did not have the chance to do so before. But some things are still following him from his past.
Relationships: Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Matt Holt & Keith
Series: The Path Forward [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579603
Comments: 6
Kudos: 67





	1. Entry

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys, so here‘s the start of the second part. This time all about the Garrison. 
> 
> I really hope to make the chapters longer than before. Like, it annoyed me myself that they were so short...

”Do you really think I will pass the entrance exam?” Keith was biting his lip raw with how tense he was.

”Yes, Keith. I think you will be just fine. You mastered every single test I gave you from the Garrison‘s previous exams. You rarely had any mistakes. Heck, even before I started tutoring you, you had enough knowledge to be accepted into the upper years.” Shiro laughed softly, patting Keith on his back. ”Judging by your look, you still don‘t believe me.“

After Shiro had given him a second chance, Keith decided to use the opportunity he was given for once. What did he have to lose? His pride? - long lost with the facility and his owner. His self-confidence? His self-esteem? - never really had those to begin with. His reputation? Keith snorted, yeah sure. To lose his reputation as the angry loner to exchange it for failure? Well not much difference there. Some already saw him as a failure and waste of time, so why not confirm their assumptions.

But Shiro? In the last few months, he first gave him a second chance and then stayed by his side and helped him apply and learn for the entrance exams of the Galaxy Garrison. And even if he is gonna leave after Keith was accepted -  _ if _ he was accepted - he at least had a little chance for a future now. He just had to not get attached or open himself and he won‘t be disappointed or hurt. 

”So I have to go now, I am one of the coordinator after all.” Shiro gave him a big smile a squeeze to his shoulder. 

”You gonna be good?” Keith croaked out a quiet  _ yes _ and gave a little smile that looked more like a grimace. Shiro gave him a last pat, an encouraging smile and then left. Keith didn‘t even have enough time to drown in his thought before an officer appeared and told them that they could now enter the building for the written exam.

Keith kept fidgeting on his chair, his tablet for the exam lying still black on his desk in front of him. All around him other participants were talking animatedly to each other. Their nervousness seemed nowhere as high as Keith‘s, all fully smiling and joking. The loudest of all sat three rows to his right further in the front. A young boy with brown hair and tan skin. His friend to his right, a much bigger boy with black hair, didn‘t even seem to be listening to him. That guy at least seemed even more nervous than Keith, fidgeting with his shirt and looking all around him as if somebody or something would attack him any moment. 

The class only became quiet when the instructor came in. A big guy with a bald head.His booming voice soon filled the whole room, everybody listening.

”I won‘t be repeating anything I‘m gonna say so listen good. My name is commander Iverson and those of you who will pass this test will be under my command for the rest of their school career. Now, the questions will appear on your tablet in front of you. You have to solve at least 65% to be on the acceptance list. There. Is only a limited number of cadets that are allowed to attend the Garrison, so don’t get you’re hopes up only because you passed. You have 5 hours for all subjects. The questions are divided by school subjects and basis knowledge.” Commander Iverson looked around the class once. 

”Good luck. Now start!”

_ ’ Those stupid questions are too easy. No way I‘m anwsering them correctly. But I’ve got no time left to think too long on each and every question. Damnit!! I have to be faster! I bet everyone else is already at least half on the questions!’ _ When Keith looked at the clock, he saw that he didn‘t even have two hours left. Finishing his last sentence of the essay he had to write he jumped to the next subject only for his tablet to go black and a little white space to appear with the announcement that the teacher will soon come.  
’ _Why?! NO! What did I do wrong, why does the instructor have to come?! Do they think he cheated? No, why should they? But why else would they come?!’ _ While Keith had his internal crisis, the instructor came to take his tablet and congratulate him on the test. Keith thinking that they were just humoring him, packed his things and went outside with his head hanging down. ’ _ What will Shiro think. He had helped him all this time. Wasted his precious time on him. What an idiot he had been to think he could go to the Garrison.’ _ With his head hanging low and immersed in his thought he didn‘t realize when he ran into a brick wall -a moving, sound-making brick wall. 

”Keith? Wow, I didn‘t expect you to be already finished. So how did it go?”

With how Shiro was smiling at him, Keith didn‘t want to destroy his good mood by confessing how bad he thought the test went. So he kept quiet and still, looking at his feet. 

Shiro lifted his to face to look him into the eyes. Only then Keith realized that his view was all blurry due to the tears that had gathered in his eyes.

”Hey, hey buddy. No, everything is gonna be okay.” Shiro was rubbing at his cheeks to dry the tears that had escaped. ”Hey buddy, can I hug you?”

Keith was shocked by that question. Never had anyone ever asked to hug him. Either they just took from him or never offered any physical affection. Keith gave a short nod and tensed when big arms surrounded him  _keeping him locked with no way out hurting him with their pressure_ \-  but there was no pain, only warmth and a good kind of pressure, just enough to be supportive and protective, calming and grounding. This ...this was really nice. Keith lost the tension in his muscles and leaned into the hug. 

When they separated again, Keith rubbed at his eyes and put him arms back around his middle.

”Come on, It can‘t have been that bad, right? Cause I know for a fact what an clever little fox you are.” Shiro lightly hit his arm giving a supportive smile. 

”I‘m not a fox.” Keith mumbled but it was too quiet to be fully heard.

”I bet you just think you have done bad because everything was too easy for you.” Shiro let out a little chuckle. Keith just huffed.

”Why would you think that? I know that I have done bad. I know that I didn‘t answer them enough. I- ” Keith sniffed, not getting anymore words out when his throat got too tight.

”Well if you think so...” Even though Shiro said that he still had a knowing smile on his face, as if to say that he wouldn‘t believe anything Keith had to say about that matter.

”Then I guess we just have to wait for the final results. They should be out about next week. How about we take that time to get your mind off the exam. Hmm?”

Keith didn‘t know what he should say. Why was Shiro still here and not with somebody else who deserved his attention. Why did he think that Keith did well in that exam when he wasn‘t even there!

Keith just gave up and let out a small huff. ”Fine, alright. What did you have in mind?”

”Well for one, a new bistro opened in town. I heard they had amazing waffles. What do you say? Should we test those rumors? Hmm, and after ... maybe we could go out into the desert.” Shiro now had a full on smirk on his face. ”The desert? What should we do there? I mean, it can be beautiful, but is there anything special?”

Shiro just turned around and spoke over his shoulder.

”Well I guess you just have to find out, he? Luckily I just finished everything I had to do. Come on let‘s go.”

Shiro‘s smile was infective, so Keith got a little smile of his own and ran after him.

* * *

Keith never went to a bistro with any of his foster families before. So when he got the menu, he first didn‘t know what to do with it. Shouldn‘t they just get him something? Normally, whenever Keith wasn‘t cooking by himself, he would just eat what was served. In case with his foster families, he had to eat if it tasted good or not. Not eating meant disrespecting what they did for him and that normally meant some sort of punishment. He had learned early not to give up a chance to eat. He never knew when would be the next time he could eat.  
So he just starred at Shiro, waiting for him to decide what to eat. It must have been a mistake on their part to give him the card, maybe they did it out of courtesy. 

”Man, I really don’t know what to take. All of the choices sound really tasty. Have you decided on what you want to eat yet?”

Keith didn‘t understand. _Why would Shiro ask him if he had already decided? Maybe- maybe he had misjudged Shiro and now he was taunting him like everybody else. After all Keith never got a choice._

Shiro became confused quite fast. _Why was Keith suddenly looking at him like that? He seemed angry and sad. Why? Had he said something wrong? He had only asked what he wanted, hadn‘t he?_

”He-hey buddy, what‘s wrong?” Shiro asked cautiously.

Keith just turned his head away and looked down.

”You‘re just like anybody else.” Keith was murmuring , Shiro had to strain his ears to fully understand him.

”Wha-what are you talking about? Why do you think I‘m like anybody else? And even if I am, would that be a bad thing?”

”Why would you ask me if I had decided what I would eat? That‘s just cruel. You‘re laughing at me like everybody else.”

Shiro was now fully confused. ”Ehm...., I asked you... I asked you because I was interested in what you would take. I would never laugh at you! Why would you think that?”

”Then why ask that?! I don‘t have a choice either way. So why are you shoving this into my face?!” Keith was getting angry now. Tears were gathering in his eyes. When had he become such a cry-baby?!

”No choice? But Keith, you DO have a choice. Are you talking about something different? I-i thought we were talking about the waffles. I‘m sorry if I don‘t understand right now.”

”We are talking about the same thing. I‘m talking about how you asked me what I was getting, when I have no chance to deciding for myself! You are going to choose anyway! So why taunt me by asking that?!”

”But you can decide for yourself. Why shoudn‘t you? I would never get you something you wouldn‘t like.”

Why would Keith think that? When Shiro looked more clearly at Keith he got an idea why that could be.

”Say, have you never chosen what you would like to eat from a menu?”

”No, why would I? Everybody else was always deciding for me.” Keith was now fully hiding his face behind his hair.

”Ahh, oh Keith. You won‘t ever have to let somebody decide what you will get to eat. At least not from me.” Shiro tried to sound as genuin as he thought.

”You see. Whenever you‘re with me or anybody else, you can decide for yourself what you would like. There are only ever special occasions where that might not be the case. But you will never be forced to eat something you do not want. It doesn‘t matter what you have experienced until now, but that was wrong.”

Keith looked back up, slow understanding crawling into his expression.

”Then how about we make this into the premier of you‘re first ever choosing of what you would like to eat in a restaurant?” Shiro was smiling at Keith and soon Keith made a small nod while his lips lifted upwards.

”Yeah, sounds good.”

In the end, Keith choose a waffle with bananas and chocolate sauce and Shiro one with lots of fruits and a little vanilla ice scoop.

After they were done, Shiro took Keith on his hoverbike to the desert. They were racing along a small river, speeding towards the big cliffs in the distance. Both of them whooping and crying out in elation, forgetting all about the day‘s negative events.  
Later they sat together on the edge of a cliff watching the sunset. The sky coloring in a flaming red then a bright pink, followed by violet and ending in a deep blue until the stars were fully out and shining in the night sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, I haven‘t decided yet if there is gonna be a ship in this fanfic. So everything from here on out can be read as platonic or romantic.
> 
> I‘d really like to know what you think to far? Is there anything I‘m missing or something you don‘t like / understand?


	2. Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!!!
> 
> Here‘s the second chapter. I‘m gonna try to not post everyday or every second day, cause this way I soon won‘t have any more chapter to offer.
> 
> I hope you like this one.

The Garrison was everything he had dreamt of ... and not.

Keith had (not) surprisingly passed the entrance exam as one of the best of his years and been accepted into the Garrison.Keith first couldn‘t believe his eyes. He had always thought the Garrison to be absolutely strict and thorough that he never believed his answers to be enough to be satisfying to them. Not even speaking one of the best in his whole year.

Shiro again had this knowing smirk Keith would soon come to hate. But it seems that it may not be so bad for Keith to have been wrong and corrected by Shiro.

Finally he could let his past behind him and leave his foster home! The new freedom he gained was intoxicating. Well, at least a different kind of freedom, not like the Garrison wasn’t known for its strict rules. But the best feeling was always in the simulator. He was the best pilot in years. Even one of the best the Garrison ever had they said. Some even called him a prodigy. Those that did not would either be neutral about him orinsult him, say he cheated, was sucking a higher-ups dick to be so good and that he was only here because of Shiro. 

Well the last one wasn‘t too far-fetched from the truth. If it hadn‘t been for Shiro he would probably be dying in some puddle in an alley about now or already expelled for his behavior. But it wasn‘t his fault that the other students always aggravated and insulted him. Some even became physical with him, bumping into him and shoving him around. He bet they would like to do more if he would let them or their asses weren‘t on the line. If someone hit him Keith would hit back, paying back double to make sure they wouldn‘t be trying this again anytime soon. So most of the time they stuck to insults.

  
The first half year, the new cadets weren‘t yet allowed in the simulator, only doing the basics and the theory behind everything. As soon as they had enough knowledge to start doing drill, he used every minute of free time he had, that was not spend in class, with shiro or in the library, in the sims. Normally, Shiro would be by his side, correcting him or getting him access to the sims, he didn‘t yet have. Soon he was obliterating Shiro‘s previous records. It became a new game for them. If one broke the other‘s record, the other would try to beat them again.  
They had lots of fun when they did a double run. Shiro and Keith would fly next to each other in formations and completing the course as the top of the board. They were always trying to get better than before. They were even a few times other cadets would stop to watch their run. Standing outside in awe. Luckily, Keith never saw them before he started flying, otherwise he knew he would listen to much to what they would say about him. This way Keith could concentrate 100% on Shiro and the route. Naturally Keith couldn‘t yet pilot every course, because he didn‘t have enough knowledge yet to access that level, so they still had to wait before their names could be on the number one spot for every course. But they had fun nonetheless. Keith and Shiro were a fantastic pair. Shiro with his knowledge and precision and Keith with his instincts and natural ability to fly. They were complementing each other. No one could keep up with them. Especially not if they flew together. Shiro was happy that he now had Keith. With him he could use his full potential in the partner run. Only a hand-full of people could keep up with Shiro and Keith was someone who could be more than his equal with more training.

There were two sort of people in the Garrison concerning Keith. The ones that admired him and praised him and the ones that badmouthed, insulted and sneered at him. Most of those were the guys in his class. And it wouldn‘t end with the students, the professors were exactly the same. Some were praising him and using him as example for how some stuff is done and the others just waited for him to do a faux-pas to get rid of him.

Whenever he looked into ’his haters’ eyes he could always see how the people from three years ago were looking at him and his master whenever he paraded Keith around. Envy, jealousy, hatred. As soon as Keith recognized those feeling in his peers‘ eyes he had to look away, afraid that all the bad memories would come rushing back. Sometimes it really became to much. Keith had never been exposed to so many eyes. Before, they were clinical or just envious, but here at the Garrison the hate some people would express, was never something Keith had been exposed to that much. Not only the stares were bad. On bad days, even the close proximity to so many students would be too much. Keith skin would start crawling and prickling and he would hear nothing except for loud static noises. In those cases he had to find a quiet place and calm down. That would take at least half an hour, sometimes shorter if Shiro was calming him down. 

So he kept to himself - except Shiro, who stayed by his side - and tried to ignore all the jeers of his fellow students. He heard how his attitude towards his peer let him appears as arrogant but he didn‘t really care. No, that wasn‘t really correct. He did care - or more likely he had cared. He wouldn‘t know how to make friends to save his life. 

In the beginning he tried, he really tried to make a new start and get some friends. But his inability to hold conversations or act accordingly never got him far. His new reputation as ’emo’, ’loner‘ or ’arrogant jerk’, as that one guy said, always precedes him before he could even try to make contact. 

His only friend in the whole Garrison stayed Shiro. And with Shiro soon came Matthew Holt, who was a little younger than Shiro and highly intelligent.

Those three soon became best friends. Matt and Keith would always talk about Science and Shiro would try to take part in those conversations until he would groan, hit his head on the table and argue that he didn‘t know what they were even talking about. The other two would always laugh and coo at Shiro.

”Don‘t worry Shiro, maybe someday you will have enough knowledge to support me in our little discussions.” Matt said while patting Shiro’s back.

”What are you talking about? Shiro would naturally take my side. Right Shiro?” Keith was watching Shiro with that happy glint in his eyes that he would always get whenever he talked about stuff he loved. Shiro just groaned again, nearly hitting his head too hard on the table with how Keith looked at him. Keith always reminded him of a little puppy who finally got the attention he deserved. If he had a tail it would surely be waging while those big puppy eyes were starring at him. 

Matt just laughed at Shiro‘s predictament. He often enough was on the receiving end of those eyes to know what power they held.

”I don‘t even know what you‘re talking about!”

Before Keith could reply about the whole argument, Matt pushed his glasses up his nose and replied himself. ”Well basically, we were discussion what was better. Biology or Technology. I mean it is obvious what is better, but Keith just won‘t see it.” Matt closed it eyes, lifted his arms in a ’I-don‘t-know‘-pose and slowly shook his head from side to side in mock sadness. 

”Not true! Biology is clearly ahead of technology, just look at the natural way life work. Technology still has a far way to go before it can be anywhere close to replicating those organisms.” Keith let out a huff and a short nod.

”Urgh, why am I friends with people I can‘t even normally talk to?”

”Well my dear friend wouldn‘t it be extemely boring to talk to those peasants, who don‘t even know the beauty of science?” Matt said and Keith nodded along.

Shiro just kept his head lying on the table and let out a unidentifiable grunt.

”I take that as agreement.”

Whenever Keith and Matt wouldn‘t discuss and argue about science stuff they would make Shiro‘s life hell. Well not really a bad hell, more like an embarrassing and sometimes funny hell. Not that Shiro would admit that openly. They would always pull little pranks or joke with him all of them had to laugh about in the end.

Whenever it was just him and Keith they often would go out into the desert to race with their hoverbikes. Keith said the he had built it himself with an old model and lots of spare parts. And Shiro had to say he was impressed with the work. Keith really did know what to do with each part. He said it once belonged to his dad and he had found it in their old home. How his old home was still standing without anyone else living in it and where it was would be forever a mystery to Shiro, at least as long as Keith kept it to himself.

Naturally Shiro would win most of their races, but Keith became better and better. He was just such a natural at flying it was kinda scary. He had never seen anyone so at ease like Keith was whenever he either sat in the simulator or on top of a hoverbike. That were the moments where Keith would be the happiest. Shiro tried to burn each and every of those moments into his memory.  
The Keith now was just so different to the Keith he met just one year ago. Gone was the lonely quiet kid who always tried to stay out of the way and out of everyone‘s view, so far that they used to just overlook and forget about him. Now a proud fourteen year old highly intelligent smiling boy stood in front of him talking animatedly about how one could survive in the desert easily just by following certain steps.  
Naturally there were times that were not as much fun and sunshine. During those time he would revert back to the closed off kid Shiro met. Those were usually followed or preceded by jibs and jokes of his peers. 

Shiro knew Keith was an orphan. He was the one who got all the document from his social worker after he was accepted into the Garrison. After all the Garrison was not free of charges and Keith needed a guardian. Additionally he needed materials such as the uniform and tablets to participate in class. The Garrison took him in as their charge after they saw his scores and his talent in the simulator. 

Shiro also knew that his previous foster family wasn‘t the nicest. Keith would always say that they were fine and that there had been no problems. But Shiro had seen the state of the house and how Keith was treated there. Or more likely how he was not treated there. He was pretty much only ignored by the family, but still did all the housework. That was no family a twelve year old boy should be sent to. Kids needed a loving family not someone who only used them for money and useful activities. When he said something like that, Keith would deny that and argue that that has been the best way he had been treated so far and that he wouldn‘t like anything else. What kind of life had that boy been living?! To say that this house where everybody ignored him was better than to get the attention he deserved and needed?! 

He sadly had no way to look into his files. They had been closed off. And if that didn‘t say anything about the life Keith had until now then he didn‘t know what did. He couldn‘t imagine it to be closed of because Keith was some kind of criminal. No, the boy was just to innocent to be anything like that. 

Just like that time when Shiro and Matt took him for the first time to the zoo. The look on Keith‘s face alone had been worth the trip. At first he had seemed scared and reluctant to go. After some coaxing however he followed them inside. Still with some trepitation as if somebody would attack him any moment they started to walk and soon Keith lost the tension to his shoulders. He fully forgot his fear when they came to the goats and sheep. They could go inside to pet them and armed with food, the animals soon were swarming Keith, licking his hands and sniffing his pockets. The mesmerized expression he had stayed with him the whole time. Shiro could have sworn his eyes nearly sparkled the further they went along. He was gushing about how he had always only read about those animals and never thought he could see them in real life. Only with some animals Keith would stay standing in front of a sad expression on his face. 

They continued walking along the path, Shiro explaining something about the Pinguins they were with just moments ago when he realized that Keith wasn‘t with them anymore. He quickly turned around to look for the lost boy when he saw him standing in front of a bawn that went some meters down. Keith was leaning so far over the edge he was scared that he would fall over. When Shiro came to a stop next to him, he finally could see the animal that had bewitched the boy.   
Who would have thought that Keith loved hippos.  


When they got to the end and were about to leave the zoo, Matt told them to wait for him and disappeared around the corner. When he returned he had a violet plush hippo with him that he gave to Keith. Eyes wider than he had ever seen, Keith starred at the hippo, to look next to Matt, then to Shiro and back to Matt and the hippo.

”This is for you, a little reminder of our day together.”

Keith slowly moved his hands towards the hippo and with a last glance at Matt, he grabbed it so fast, as if scared that Matt would take it away again - not that it was surprising, Shiro believed that lots of people had done exactly that - and pressed it to his chest, arm tight around his body and the plush hippo. That‘s when they heard a little sniffle. Matt and Shiro looked at each other only to realize that the sniffle came from further down. Keith was crying.

”Hey hey bud, what‘s wrong”? Shiro knelt down slightly to be at the same eye level and rubbed lightly his shoulder.

Keith just started crying a little more and wound himself tighter. That was until he sprung forward and into Matt‘s arms and mumbled just so loud that both of them could understand him. ”Thank you.” 

Matt just kept standing like a statue until he realized what Keith said and put his arms lightly around the smaller body. 

”You‘re welcome.” Came a whisper. Soon Keith drew back a slight red tint to his cheeks now. Shiro and Matt just smiled down at the younger. Happy that they could give him such a great day with good memories.


	3. The Other Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was surprisingly easy to write Lance and Hunk‘s dialogue. Keith is my favorite character of them all, so I didn‘t expect that.

”I hate him.” Lance let his tray clatter onto the table and let himself fall on his chair. Hunk was surprised that all the food stayed on his plate and Lance in his chair with how hard he plopped down. Hunk would have bet money that Lance was too deep in thoughts that he would have missed the chair and flopped onto the floor.

Resigned to his fate Hunk just let out a long sigh.

”What did Keith do this time?”

His best friend has been going on and on about Keith Kogane the piloting prodigy in their year.

”You know, I was just walking along the corridor and passed by the gym when I came here. And who was there? Yes you guessed right, Keith Kogane. Urgh, what is that guy doing except training? I bet he isn‘t even doing anything in there just trying to ’look cool’ and ’impress’ the ladies.” Lance had been doing air-quotes with his fingers saying this. 

”I mean from what I heard he must be pretty good in combat.” Lance was looking at Hunk like he had spouted a second head.

”Ehm, No!?”

”Come on Lance, just tell me what has happened this time?” 

”Fiiine. So I was walking by the gym and Keith was in there training again. I think he was doing some chin-ups (pull-ups?) and I nearly couldn‘t pass the hallway because all those girls were hiding behind the door, peeking at Keith, gossiping and nearly squealing.”

_Lance was casually walking down the hallway when he heard whispering coming from around the corner. ’Hmm, normally there was just the gym, so what was happening there without Lancey-Lance there?’ Lance peaked around the corner and saw nearly a dozen girls hiding left and right to the entrance. ’Heey, ladies, what are you doing here nicely? Waiting for your knight in shining armor?’ He was wiggling his eyebrows and trying to flirt with the girls but they didn‘t even seem to have noticed him. Coming closer Lance could hear what they were talking about._

_’Isn‘t he hot’_

_’Well I think that he is really cute’_

_’Yeah, but I think he is much more sexy than cute, I mean have you seen that body’_

_’Absolutely, he doesn‘t have the most muscles but those lines are so well defined and proportional.’_

_’Yeah and that ass’_

_All the girls were sighing at the same time. It was just so clichéd._

_’How many did he already do?’_

_’I think he is somewhere over sixty.’_

_’How can somebody be so elegant while doing pull-up?’_

_’I don‘t know. The only thing that I know is that I cant‘t look away.‘_

_’Me too, I‘m pretty sure I will only leave if somebody where to drag me away.’_

_’And if it happened to be carried in those arms, I would have no problems with it.‘  
_

_During the conversation Lance couldn‘t hold his curiosity at bay and peaked into the gym. What he saw let him back away as fast as possible._

_ They were talking about  _ Keith _!! How could somebody talk like that about Keith ? How could anybody think that this atrocity of a hairstyle could be sexy?! Lance didn‘t want to hear anymore of the stuff the girls said. As fast as he could, he got past them and nearly jogged down the corridor cursing under his breath the whole way to the cafeteria. _

”I mean come on! That guy is not really that awesome!”

”Well I think from a objective kind of view, he is kinda good-looking, and with that all mysterious vibe going on about him, even with a slightly feminine look to him.” Hunk just shrugged. 

”Hunk, my bestie, Hunky-bear, you can‘t be serious!?”

”Hey, I just said that I can understand somehow why girls would like a guy like him.”

”But he is a total, arrogant, lonesome, cheating, showy ass with a horrible haircut! Didn‘t you hear what he said to me last week after we got our tests back? He said ’congratulation‘ in that snobby way with that high-and-mighty attitude. I finally beat him and he didn‘t even seem to care. Like only his wins would count!”

”Lance , seriously, I love you but could you just for one moment get your head out of your fantasy and into reality?”

”What are you talking about? Are you saying you didn‘t see what happened?”

”I‘m only saying that I recall it a little different.”

Lance gasped and raised his hand to his chest, beginning to get slightly angry because Hunk wasn‘t supporting him.

”Are you saying that I‘m lying?”

”No Lance, I‘m saying that you‘re a little exaggerating about this whole Rival-Keith-thing. Why don‘t you just leave him alone and go your own way.”

” _ I should leave him alone?! _ What are you saying Hunk, he should leave  _ ME _ alone and not always trying to one-up me!”

Hunk just sighed again. There really was nothing he could say to make their conversation about anything else than Keith Kogane.

”I just think that he is pretty clever and just has good grades and is not trying to beat you at every chance he gets.”  ’ _Even though he sometimes really scares me with his glare.’_

”Oh no! That guy is definitely cheating in some way.”

”Why would you say that? He is after all great friends with Takashi Shirogane and that genius kid. They‘re  _ are  _ always learning together. They would never let him cheat.”

”And that exactly is the thing my big teddy bear friend! He is just using them! He is taking advantage of Shiro. Why would somebody nice like him be friends with that emo kid? I just don‘t get it. I bet Keith‘s parents are paying Shiro to be his friend. How else could that be possible?”

Before Hunk could retort anything about how idiotic Lance interpretation of the situation was the bell rang for their next class. 

”Oh shoot, I have combat class next. And urgh with  _ Keith _ .” He said it like his name alone tasted like cow poop. 

”See you later buddy.”

And gone was Lance. Leaving Hunk alone to go to his next class. He just shook his head and took both his and Lance‘s trays to put them away.

(Later in Hunk‘s and Lance‘s shared dorm-room)  
  


”You look like hell.” Hunk observed when Lance came in after nearly two hours of combat class.

”Well that is exactly how I feel.” Lance plopped face first down on Hunk’s bed.

”Hey!! Why are you lying sweaty like you are in my bed?!”

”That is exactly why. I am sweaty. And I don‘t want to get my sweat in my bed. And I am too beat to move right now.”

”But my bed is fine, huh?” Hunk didn‘t have any compassion for his friend, gripping him by the ankle and pulling him down from his bed. Lance landed with a loud  _ umpf _ on the floor.

”Heeey! Why did you do that?” Lance asked with a groan while he was rubbing his chin.

”I did that because you lay your sweaty self on MY freshly made bed. So, no thanks for that.” Lance just grumbled but made no move to get up.

”And I thought we were friends....”

Hunk just sighed, seems like Lance was in one of his moods again.

”Lance, buddy we are friends, but friends don‘t use their friends for stuff like that. And friends are allowed to push their friend down from their bed. So what happened to make you this grumpy?”

”What else could have happened other than Keith? He again was showing off during class and the damn instructor was nearly swooning on his feet. And after that he just disappeared with a girl in tow. Why is everything always flying towards that guy?! He makes it look so easy. Like everyone should just obey him and follow his command, and then everybody will just be happy because he is the ruler. I bet he never even had any hard-ships in life and always got everything he wanted. Born with a silver spoon in his hand and treated like the little king he thinks he is. He would never know how hard it is for somebody with a big family to achieve something and be noticed. Urg, he just is soo annoying! If he could just disappear then everyone would stop comparing everybody to him, especially ME. Iverson is always on my ass because of that. ’Look at Kogane here, Look at Keith that’. I really had enough of that guy. I bet instead of learning he is enjoying his time with some girl right now, or better yet, with multiple girls, his own little fanclub filled with hot chicks.”

Meanwhile in the library

After combat training Keith directly went to his dorm room to take a quick shower and then continued on to the library. They had some stuff in class today Keith still had some problem memorizing. So Keith hoped to use the time he had before he was supposed to be in his next class to revise everything they had done today. 

Some girl had followed him after training but Keith didn‘t have time to have a long chat with her but told her that he had some time tomorrow to talk. She first looked a little perplexed but seemed to understand. Then told him that she would find him again tomorrow during recess. Apparently she had wanted some tipps for her classes.  


Most of the time, Keith preferred real books to the online versions. There was just a certain feeling to having a full book in his hands. So Keith took to studying in the library. Lucky for him, only few of the students used it, so Keith had his peace and privacy. 

After he was done sooner that he had thought, he used his time to take up the science book for the years above him. There was a time when class was just so boring because Keith had already researched and learned about all that, that he started to read about the stuff they would teach in higher grades. And because he had been studying with both Shiro and Matt, he already had some knowledge about the more advanced stuff. Sometimes even helping Shiro understand stuff from his own class, even though Keith unlike Shiro hadn‘t even been present in class.  


While Keith was sitting there in the quiet he also had a lot of time to think about his life in the Garrison. Sure it was really nice here and Shiro had Matt were great friends. But while they were  _ his  _ only friends, he wasn‘t  _ their _ only friend. Keith always felt even more alone than he had ever felt before, even in his cell with his old owner and the scientists he hadn‘t felt it so strong. Whenever Shiro or Matt would either sit with other people - most of the time older ones from their own year - Keith would look for a table were they couldn‘t see him, so that they wouldn‘t pity him and have to talk to him  or feel like an outsider and nuisance when they would bring they friends to the table the trio normally used.

And Keith had to admit that that ugly feeling that was rearing its head inside his mind .... was jealousy. He was jealous of all the other kids and even adults who seemed to excel in social activities. Talking came just so easily to them. Like they didn‘t even have to think about what they would say next or pay attention to what exactly was spouting from their mouths.

The only real conversations he held - except for Shiro, Matt or the instructors - were either with his bullies - like James Griffin, who tries to make his life hell - whenever he had to verbally defend himself. Or when that annoying Cuban boy came to him. He didn‘t even know his name! Was is Taylor? Yeah, that must have been it, after all he had been repeating that half a dozen times during their last simulator drill. He always came to him especially after a test. Either to complain or accuse him of cheating, trying to one-up him or anything else in that department or to boast about how he had beaten Keith by one point. Most of the time those were the subjects Keith didn‘t have that much interest in. So he didn‘t give a shit if he wasn‘t one of the best five or so. Keith would just shrug his shoulders and say ’good for you’ or ’congratulations’ and go to his next class. But whenever he was congratulating him, the Cuban‘s happy mood would turn angry and start to sneer at Keith. Keith never understood what he said wrong. Shouldn‘t people normally be happy if they were congratulated? So what was his problem? That boy really had no reason to be so angry with Keith and meddle in his affairs. He didn‘t seem to want to be friends with him, just always complaining and insulting him. So why should Keith pay any attention to him? 

And he had just so many friends! That was just so unfair. What did Keith do wrong to be hated to much?


	4. Tears and Worries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, a new chapter. This is finally is little longer than the rest.

One big thing about the Garrison were the constant competitions and the competitive behavior of its students. Especially the Shifter and non-Shifter factions were always arguing who was better. While the Shifter were always arguing that they were better because nature had given special privileges and made them some kind of ’over-humans’ the humans would always negate this by declaring themselves more resilent and intelligent by not having any special features.

Even though the Garrison was not supposedly competitive - well that‘s what Shiro said - lots of the students saw it as such.

Although most of them wouldn’t go that far, there were especially two groups of students - one shifter and one non-shifter - that would go around in secret and pressure other students, try to intimidate them or cornering them if it wasn‘t official what side they belonged on. Naturally everything under the radar as to not alert the instructors. Because until now there has never been any punishment for those. If the teachers just didn‘t know or didn‘t care wasn‘t clear.

And Keith was one of the few students where it was known that he was a Shifter - no idea how they knew that, must either have happened during the entrance exam, where everyone was divided or after being accepted into the Garrison - but not known what he was. He didn‘t even think that the instructor knew. Some classes where even specifically designed for Shifters but Keith always successfully avoided them. He always got away with not showing his Shifter form during those. Either somebody must have access to his files and thus his history or they just didn‘t care if one of their students was not in the correct class.

And so again Keith found himself behind the building in a dark corner surrounded by over half a dozen shifters. The funny thing about this was that their shifter form, no matter how much they were praising it, was normally not helpful in a situation where you wanted to hit someone. I mean it just looks absolutely ridiculous when you wanted to intimidate someone with the body of a guniea pig. Some of them were at least lucky enough to be a slightly bigger dog breed or a cat with claws. But the taunting, that was full and utterly human (doesn‘t matter if shifter or not).

_ ”Well, how about you finally come out what you are?” _

_ ”Maybe he forged his documents so he was something better that he naturally is.” _

_ ”Maybe he is too embarrassed to show himself in front of us” _

_ ”Do you think that you are better than us?” _

_ ”He‘s too good to show his form in front of us peasants.” _

_ ”Well, come on now! We are waiting!” _

_ ”Nobody ever wanted you anyway.” _

_ ”You‘re useless” _

_ ”Worthless” _

_ ”Orphan trash” _

_ ”You‘re all alone, because no body loves you” _

The voices were resonating and repeating inside his head. They were going on and on about how worthless Keith was. Keith kept on his stone mask, not showing the slightest hint that their words were hurting him.

It finally escalated when two of them started to grab his arms and drag him forwards.

Not giving them even two meters, Keith started to pull back. Because he was naturally a lot stronger than they were, he had his arms loose before they could fully react and pushed them to the ground. Seething with rage but knowing that he could get in even more trouble, he took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

’Patience yields Focus’ He slowly loosened his fists and opened his eyes again.

”I don‘t care what you have to say. You don‘t know me. So you can‘t judge me for what I do and don‘t do. It is just embarrassing what you are doing. How low you have sunken.”

”I will show you low.”

When the next guy came, he tried to grab his hair and pull. Before he had the chance, Keith just shoved his fist into the guys sternum. Not enough to bruise and be used as evidence but enough that he was now on his knees wheezing. Keith glared a last time at the group and then finally turned around.

”I don‘t ever want to hear from you again.”

And with that he walked back into the building and continued on to his room.

There he just plopped face first onto his bed and soon felt his eyes close, hoping that those words would not be revisiting him in his dreams. 

That was how he lay on his bed until his tablet pinged. Grumbling he felt for his tablet but when he couldn‘t find it immediately he finally lifted his head and took the tablet that just lay centimeters out of his reach. After the light shock he got and his eyes had adjusted themselves to the light he saw that he had a message from Shiro.

’Hey Keith, I‘m done with my classes today and wanted to head to the gym. Wanna spar a little?’

Keith took some time to understand what Shiro had just asked but replied as soon as his mind started to work correctly again.

’Sure, could use some exercise. When u gonna be there?’

’Be there in ten.’

’Alright meet you there.’

’C u soon’

Keith got out of bed and took his gym bag that was lying in the corner. He redressed himself in some black leggings and the standard Garrison dark gray t-shirt, then put his hair in a low ponytail.

On his way to the gym he tried to look out for the guys that had cornered him earlier. He absolutely didn‘t want to see them again. He took up his pace and soon arrived at the gym. When he didn‘t saw Shiro there yet he decided to go in and start with the stretching.

”You know, It amazes me every time how damn flexible you are.”

On the sound of the new voice, Keith bolted upright from the position he held only moments ago, where his head was between his knees while his legs were stretched out on the ground.

Trying to hide his shock but failing miserable, Keith was mumbling when he got up from the floor, ”Don‘t do that Shiro.” He had been fully concentrating on the stretching that he didn‘t hear any sound behind him.  _Stupid stupid stupid, how are you gonna survive like this in the future._ He could be lucky that in was only Shiro, and he trusted Shiro. 

”Haha, sorry didn‘t want to interrupt you. But for real, how are you doing that? Did you do some gymnastics or something like that when you were younger?”

”Yeah, something like that.” Keith said and looked away.

Shiro immediately saw the mood change in Keith‘s expression and turned their conversation to a new subject. 

”So how long have you been here already?”

”Only about five minutes. How are you, wanna start already?”

”Give me five minutes and them I‘m ready.”

”Sure, old-timer.” A grin was starting to form on Keith‘s face but before Shiro could retort something Keith was already gone to prepare their sparring mats. 

About ten minutes into their session, Shiro realized that Keith wasn‘t as concentrated and more aggressive that normal. When Shiro tried to ask if everything was going well Keith would always only answer ’fine’. But Shiro knew that ’fine’, wasn‘t in fact  _fine_ . After being thrown to the floor three time, Shiro decided to go all in to finally land Keith on the mat. It seemed that his technique worked when he soon had Keith pinned to the floor.

”Sooo”, Shiro drawled ”How about you tell me now what is wrong? I‘m sure we can work with whatever you‘re struggling with.” After nearly two years of knowing Keith, Shiro learned one or two things about the younger. There where times when it was in one worst interests to pressure Keith into answering when something was wrong, but there were also few times when Keith needed a supporting voice, so that he wasn‘t drowning in his own thoughts. And this was one of those times. Something seemed to be bothering Keith and Shiro would find out what it was and terminate it existance if it meant Keith would not be wallowing in his mind.

When Keith was turning his head to the side to avoid eye-contact, Shiro loosened his hold on the younger boy.

”You know you can talk to me, right?” Shiro tried to gauge a reaction out of Keith, but he wasn‘t saying anything. After only minutes that felt like an hour, Shiro realized that Keith‘s eyes had become misty and glassy. Immediately, Shiro got off of Keith and pulled him up and into a hug. Too late did he realized that he hadn‘t asked for permission, but before he could pull back, small arms wrapped around his torso and grabbed onto his shirt. Silent sobs wrecked the younger boy‘s shoulders, and Shiro couldn‘t do anything that to rub his back and card his hands through the messy ponytail while uttering some encouragements.

After some minutes like this Keith let go and the mask, he always wore around everybody, was back on his face.

”Wanna go to your or mine room and talk about it?”

His answer was a small nod. Shiro got to his feet and helped Keith up. Together they walked back to the dorm rooms. If somebody were to look at them they would find nothing amiss. Aside from sightly red and glassy eyes no one could guess that Keith just had a little breakdown in the gym.

When they arrived at Keith‘s room, he recounted everything that had happened today and some times before. About the group of Shifters that were pressuring him into showing them his shifter form, about the always ongoing hate from the non-shifters because some shifters were always acting like they were so much better and they thought Keith was part of them and so much else. Even about the hate from his fellow classmates. Shiro soon realized how much pressure has been on Keith. How much has been weighting on the younger‘s mind the whole time. Shiro knew how envious people could get when faced with somebody who just seemed to have everything just come to them so naturally. After all he had been declared the Garrison‘s Golden Boy. And Keith was a prime example of that. To an outsider it would look as if Keith had everything he had ever wanted, got everything without any effort. But all of that wasn’t the reality. Only few people knew what a hardworking person Keith was. Nobody ever saw him researching after each class in the library, never saw how tired he was after staying awake the whole night to finish assignments. They never saw how hard he was working himself because he never believed that anything he did was ever enough. With no support what-so-ever. Thedifference between him and Shiro was that Shiro had a great upbringing with a loving family, lots of friends and never-ending support. Keith never seemed to have had anything like that. 

”You know if you want somebody to talk to you about all that Shifter stuff, I will be there.” Shiro gave Keith a little smile that Keith returned.

”I know. I‘m just not ready to talk about that or to show anybody my shifter form. At least not yet. Not even if it‘s you.”

”And I understand that. You should just know that I will be there, when you are ready. I also will be there if you never want to talk about that. I will never give up on you.”

In the end Shiro had asked him if he would mind if Shiro shifted. And that was how they ended up together on Keith‘s bed. Shiro was in his shifter form, a big dark grey Irish wolfhound. It was really impressive. Shiro was one of the more rare kind of shifters there were. That was also why Keith was feeling much more secure next to him. Keith was laying with his head resting on shiro‘s stomach with his knees drawn to his body, hands intertwined with the long grey fur, a blanket resting on both their bodies while they were cuddling.

* * *

The next day, Keith was a bit more lively. The little talk and the cuddle-session with Shiro yesterday did wonders. He never knew how soothing it could be to talk about ones worries for a bit, naturally only the very surface. He wouldn‘t let anyone in. At least not yet completely. But Shiro was on his best way deep into Keith‘s heart.  
The cuddle-sessions also weren‘t a one-time-thing. From then on, they would at least meet once a week to share their body heat ( _no smut here (at least not yet))_ and relax together. Shiro quickly realized that Keith seemed to need that. Keith would snuggle deep into his fur and be so at ease like he had been nowhere else. Sometime, Shiro would think that it sounded like Keith was purring. Small vibrations would first wake Shiro and intensify as time went on, Shiro then would be lulled back to a comfortable nap. From then on, Shiro recognized more and more how cat like Keith would often behave. How nobody ever figured was a mystery. After all it became so obvious to anyone who would just look at him for some time. Keith would relax in the afternoon sun or would even knead his fingers into Shiro‘s fur.  
Whenever Keith would do that, Shiro hid his laugh behind his hand. Matt would always look at him like he had gone mad.  _Oh if he just knew_.  But Shiro kept his knowledge to himself. He didn‘t want to exploit Keith‘s trust. And even if, he wasn‘t even 100% sure what Keith was. He just guessed he was some kind of cat, but more than that he couldn‘t figure out, and that was ok. Even if Keith said he wasn‘t ready. Shiro would make sure to stay by the younger‘s side.

* * *

Later in the day, Keith had P.E. outside. Who ever decided to plan activities outside in the midday desert heat was insane. Judging by the expressions of everybody around him, they thought the same. The sun was hitting down on their heads. Keith was pretty sure that at least one of the cadets would end up with a stroke.  
But he guessed that it could be worse. He liked sports, moving ones body to the limit and feeling the stretch of the muscles was always nice.

Today the had to run an obstacle course in groups. The first time it depended on team work and the second time on who was the fastest. The funny thing about his classmates was that they hated his guts but on the other hands knew that he was one of the best in sports. In the end, nobody did really want him, because he couldn’t work well in groups. Luckily Iverson already decided who was in each group. The groups consisted of five cadets, chosen completely randomly. Keith was in a group with two girls and two other guys. One one them was the boy who had been so nervous on their first day and always hung around with the cuban boy. One girl was always pretty nice to him. Nice as in, not hitting or insulting him. Just ignoring whatever their peers said and moving on with her own life. She would sometimes smile when they met in the hallway or in class. The other two Keith didn‘t really know. He just hoped that they weren‘t ones who absolutely detested him. But luck was rarely on his side. The boy hated his presence but the girl just accepted that he was here. At least only one of four hated him, that was a pretty good division, he just prayed that they wouldn‘t lose because he again couldn‘t work with others.

Surprisingly they weren‘t so bad. After some arguing the one guy who hated him held himself back and tolerated Keith in their group to get a good grade. The others just went along. They were pretty good coordinated. Where one was not as strong the others would help them and then continue on. Naturally not everything just worked as they would have liked but in the end they arrived with not as much bickering as Keith in the beginning would have thought. They were the third best group, just close behind the second. Keith was content with the result, it was much better than he had anticipated with a group exercise.  


When every group had run the Parcours once they went one to the single race. Now the groups were mixed again, but this time not as randomly but putting them in groups of ten with equal good opponents.  
The best had to go first, to give the less abled a little break. This meant that Keith was one of them. Finally he could give it his all. When he turned around to look at the group he was in, he saw them all whispering to each other. _Oh, please no_. Don‘t tell him they were all plotting to go against him. It wouldn‘t be surprising. After all those were the top of the people who really hated him. _’Ok, calm down Keith. Just try to get a head start and avoid everybody who comes too close. Easy peasy.’ _  
Well, it was not as easy had Keith had hoped. And just as he had suspected, all of them tried to trip him up, block his way, one even tried to push him to the ground when he thought no one was looking. Keith had lost his footing and fell to the ground. He hadn‘t expected them to go so far. When he had collected himself from his shock, he jumped up again and sprinted back to the group. He jumped between grabbing hands and avoided feet that were placed in front of him. He forbid himself to resort to the same moves. When climbing the wall he just tried to shake of the hand that had grabbed him instead of kicking the person in the face like he would have wanted.

In the end even after all the tricks everyone had tried he still finished as the second best. He had sprinted the rest of the course and had nearly overtaken the first by how fast he was. But the distance to the finish line was closer than he could have run. So he came in as second. Unbelievable eyes were watching him after all of them finished, but even then they choose to rub it under his nose how he had lost.  _He really didn‘t understand what their problem was!? First he hadn‘t been in first place, had he. And secondly he had only lost because ALL OF THEM had put in everything they had only to let him lose._ But even then they hadn‘t been successful. Keith had come in second, much to their disappointment .  Iverson naturally had said nothing about all this. 

Why was the whole world against him.


	5. Goodbyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has to say goodbye to Shiro and receives news he never wanted to ever hear.

When the long-awaited day finally came Keith didn‘t know how to feel. His emotions were all over the place. On one hand he was absolutely happy and overjoyed for the chance Shiro received but on the other hand he was sad and felt betrayed. There was finally someone who was Keith‘s friend. Somebody who didn‘t use him as an accessoire or an experiment, someone who did not command and hurt him all the time. No, there was finally someone who wanted to genuinely spend their time with Keith and have fun together. And now it was over. Not only one but his two only friends were going to space and leaving him here all alone. Sure there was still Adam, Shiro‘s fiancé, or ex-fiancé after their big fight, but it just wasn‘t the same, especially with how they went their separate ways. That was also why Keith could accompany Shiro to the launch instead of Adam. Because Shiro family lived in Japan, he had no one else with him in the states. After Adam and Shiro cancelled their engagement, Adam didn‘t want to say goodbye to someone, he thought he wouldn‘t be able to see again. So Shiro pulled some strings so that Keith could come with him to the launch. Keith was ecstatic when Shiro had asked him to accompany him some months ago or so, to be the one to say the final goodbye to Shiro.

They had even taken some pictures. Keith with Matt and Shiro, then one only Keith and Shiro and some from the Holt family.  
  


When they said their final goodbyes, Keith tried to always keep a smile on his face. He feared that it looked like a grimace at some point, but nobody seemed to notice. Keith tried to look as happy for Shiro as he could, but it was getting harder and harder to do so. His stomach was tying itself into knots.  _He would be left alone again. Shiro was just like everybody else. No! Shiro is lot leaving you! He is coming back. Only some months and then he is back. And Matt too. He could do this. Just be happy for them now!  
  
_ ”Hey, Shiro?”

”Yeah bud?”

”You promise to come back, right?”

Shiro let out a small laugh, ”Definitely. I‘m coming back as soon as we can.” Shiro was looking down at Keith with a fond look.

”Alright, then maybe, when you‘re back, I will finally be able to tell you more. You know ... About me...” Keith had thought about this a long time. And if Shiro kept his promise, Keith thought he deserved something for staying by his side. In this case he would have proved that he wouldn‘t abandon him.

”You really don‘t have to if you don‘t feel ready yet. But if you decide to confide in me, it would be an honor and a great welcome back present when I return.” Shiro was ruffling Keith‘s hair and pulling him in a final hug.

There was a lot of hugging and tears. Nobody wanted to let go and end this moment. But at some point Shiro, Matt and Dr. Holt had to turn around and head for the shuttle.

Now Keith, Colleen Holt and Katie Holt were standing behind the glass, watching as the final adjustments and preparations were made.

He had met Katie only a few times at the rare family dinners the Holt and Shiro would invite Keith to. But otherwise he just knew them by name and Dr. Holt a little from the Garrison.

They waved to their loved one a final time when the launch began, shooting Takashi Shirogane, Matthew Holt and Samuel Holt to the farthest place humans had never been.

And together with them a small part of Keith.

* * *

The Garrison just wasn‘t the same anymore without Shiro and Matt. He again sat alone during meal time. The conversations going on around him pressing into his head, nothing to distract him anymore from the silence on his table. No laughing and jokes being thrown around. No one to spar with him anymore. Everything became really lonely. It was shocking, Keith would have thought that he was used to solitude. But apparently after spending so much time with Matt, Shiro and Adam, it was a challenge to get back to his old life style. The only thing lifting up his mood was the thought that they would return soon. Shiro had promised him not to leave him behind.

Everybody‘s actions against him seemed to have worsened. And Keith, despite telling himself time and time again to hold himself back, to calm down, to remember Shiro words, had arrived at the end of his patience. They all knew that Keith was only hanging on by a thread. That without Shiro there to protect Keith, nobody would say something in favor of him whenever there were disputes. And he knew they knew that, especially when they were sneering those fact to his face. Keith became more redrawn and aggressive, sometimes easily falling back into his old habits. Most of the time whenever he wasn‘t in class he spend in the library, the gym or his dormroom. Not that this was a big change to before, no. But now Keith would sneak out during the night on the rooftop and watch the stars. Hoping to see the shuttle somewhere, but knowing that they were somewhere far away, where he never could hope his eyes to spot them.

There was only one time when Keith couldn‘t be found in those places and that was whenever they brought new on the progress of the Kerberos Mission. Twice a week, the TV in the common room would play some news about his far away friends.  
  
But today something was different. When Keith was sitting patiently in the common room, waiting for the daily new, was when it happened.

’ _Pilot Error’_ and ’ _Mission Lost_ ’, ’ _Everybody_ _believed to be dead_ ’

Keith just starred at the screen. Three picture of the lost astronauts from the Kerberos mission were to be seen.  _Pilot error, dead __, no NO!_ That couldn‘t be right. Jumping to his feet, repressing some tears that were building in the corners of his eyes he ran straight to the place where he knew he could get more answers.

Arriving at Iverson‘s office Keith didn‘t wait to knock or to be let in, just directly storming in front of the man.

”TELL ME IT ISN‘T TRUE!!!“ Keith was screaming trying to stop his shoulders from shaking. Iverson sat at his desk, a pile of papers in front of him. His secretary had run in after Keith, trying to get him to leave the office.  
Iverson looked up at the noise, a steaming Keith in front of him.

”I hate to brake it to you boy, but it is. We have lost the contact to the crew.”

Keith couldn‘t believe it, how could have they lost contact to the most important mission right now?!

”But that doesn‘t have to mean that they are dead!”

”It does. We received some audios from Kerberos, that instigate that they had an accident and since then nothing.”

”But that doesn‘t have to mean anything! There could just have been some tech issues. Or just some interferences playing.” Keith voice was wavering and close to pleading.

”They are dead. You just have to get over it. I‘m really sorry Keith, I am. But there is nothing we could do now.”

”You could send somebody else!”

”No we can‘t, we don‘t have the needed resources yet, and even if we did, it would take month to get there. We would never get the required funds for a second exploration of this kind. And if the best pilot we have yet trained couldn‘t do it nobody else will.”

”That‘s not true! You have no evidence that it was a pilot error. Shiro had trained so much for this mission, he never would have made a mistake while flying.”

”Quiet Cadet! They are dead; It was a pilot error; There‘s nothing to be done, right now.”

At those words Keith was glaring hatefully at the commander. Iverson just let a long suffering sigh. He understood how close Keith was to Shirogane and Holt. It must be just as hard for him as their families.

”Be that as it may, there is nothing we can do. You‘re dismissed.”

Keith didn‘t know what hit him. How could they say something like that! How could they tarnish Shiro‘s name like that. He would never have butchered the landing! Some guards had come in now grabbing at Keith‘s uniform and getting him to leave.

Keith ripped his arms away from their grips, turned around and stormed out of the office just like he had entered. He ran straight to the only place he could be right now.

When he stood in front of the door, he never would have thought that it would open. But after moments the door to the apartment opened and there stood Adam. Fresh tear mark were visible on his glassless face. Eyes red-rimmed and swollen. Keith just felt into his arm, Adam immediately catching him. Together they both went to they couch and cried and mourned for someone who they wouldn‘t even have a corpse to burry. Seemingly forever lost to the cold and unknown of space.

They cried, told stories, said how much they loved him and cried again.

* * *

Keith same as Adam wasn‘t seen in classes for one week, until after the burial.

Next to his sadness, Keith still had a tiny flicker of hope in his chest. They didn‘t have a corpse so they could still be alive. When he said this to Adam, he just became angry, telling him to let it rest. Keith didn‘t understand how Adam could just ignore the possibility of Shiro being still alive. Until he could. Adam was also sad, he just coped differently than Keith. While Keith didn‘t want to let go, Adam tried not to let the feelings fester and move on.

His peers saw it similarly. Whenever Keith denied Shiro‘s death, they would just become angry. Telling him to finally let go and give up his only hope. Some even went as far mocking him, that he was finally all alone. That Shiro didn‘t want him so much that he choose death in space to not see him again. And those thoughts hurt and just stuck with him. After all they were right, weren‘t they? Nobody ever stayed with Keith and whenever they somehow did want him, it was never nice. So it must have been him. Keith told Shiro what an honor it was to be chosen, supported him only to lose him. His father died because of him, two of his foster homes didn‘t want him because he must have been somehow defect. All this time alive must have broken him. He was a broken kid, a lonely hated broken orphan boy. Even his mother didn‘t want him. Never even stuck around to see him grow up. Never even giving him a chance.  
But Shiro had promised! Shiro had promised to come back to Keith! Keith had even offered to finally open up a little. And again it had been useless. Like always in his life, when he finally decided to let someone in, something came in between. Maybe the universe just had a way to tell him, that he would always be alone. What good was a promise that couldn‘t be fulfilled.

Most students who had been mean to him held themselves back. The majority of them knew that Shiro was the only person he had left, so they just kept to themselves and left Keith alone, sympathy in their eyes. Cause Keith would never say that he saw pity in them. He didn‘t need their pity, he didn‘t  _want_ their pity! They could stick their pity where the sun never shines!

The other though, they became even worse, they started to become physical, because nobody was there who would see,  _notice_ the bruises he sported. Keith also didn’t care anymore to defend himself. Nobody would believe him anyway. So he just thought that before he was falsely accused he would rather be the only one walking away bruised and hurt. It became a fifty-fifty chance if Keith was walking or limping back to his room every day. They would corner him in hallways, pull him into a closet or try to trip him up where everyone could see. No one ever came to help him. Just looking, only looking. And sometimes not even that. Ignoring him became their every day. Keith just couldn‘t do anymore.

His grades started to drop and his attendance was rare. Some days he just ghosted along the corridor, walking to places only to realize that Shiro wouldn’t be waiting there for him. He would never wait for him again. Maybe only in death. But even then, Keith was sure that unlike Shiro, Keith wouldn‘t go to heaven. 

But he held himself back from fully throwing everything away. He always told himself that he would make a mistake to destroy everything he had built.  _What Shiro had helped him built_. Even if Shiro wasn‘t here anymore to support him and watch him climb up the ranks, it was still in memento to him. To everything he had done for Keith. Only for him, he somehow tried to keep up appearance.

But the final draw was the new simulator course. 

’Kerberos Mission’  
Only some months after the Kerberos incident, after ’pilot error‘ a new course for the simulator was introduced. For future pilots not to repeat the same mistakes that had been made that had killed an entire crew.

Keith just couldn‘t take it anymore, that was the last straw. Of all the things they could have done, they choose a demonstration for Shiro‘s apparent failure. Pull Shiro’s name even more through the mud, let all he ever worked for and what he had achieved be questioned and defiled. And when Iverson asked Keith to be the one to demonstrate the course for the first time. Keith just lost it. He punched Iverson in the face almost doing more damage if the guards hadn‘t dragged him back. 

When this ended in his expulsion, Keith happily accepted, packed his stuff and left the Garrison for good. Why should he stay somewhere where nobody else wanted him anyway.

He did not look back a single time.


	6. Voices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter.  
> And yayy over 4k words. I‘m so proud of myself.  
> I‘m really sorry if my stories are like really mashed up. I have lots of ideas that I‘m just mixing together here.

Keith was blinking away the rest of his dream when he woke up to heat on his face. The sun was already up and high enough to fall through his window. It again had been this voice. This time it was telling him ’not to give up’, but Keith didn‘t know anymore.

After be had been booted from the Garrison, Keith had been lost, he had planned to do so much to find Shiro, but only then realized that he had nothing. No clue, no money, no food, no water, no one who would care if he lived or died. 

There really wasn‘t much to do. He always wanted to find something that might lead him to Shiro, but he didn‘t know if there was even anything here that might help him. The only place that could have had some clues was the Garrison, and now he wouldn’t have any access to it. He had soon realized how dumb he had been. He lost his only chance just because he couldn‘t act, because he couldn‘t control himself even for Shiro‘s sake. Now he was completely alone. 

His stomach was grumbling unhappily demanding to be fed since Keith was just laying on the ground since .... he didn‘t know. Must have been at least a day. He was pretty sure the sun had set and risen at least once. He just had no energy to get up. He had no money he could use. He didn‘t have anything to begin with, nobody ever giving or leaving him anything and the Garrison just cast him out. He was lucky that they let him get his stuff before the guards led him outside. Now even his rations were beginning to diminish. He had only a weeks worth ration of food. Maybe a little more if he were to skip some meals. But he needed water, and that wasn‘t found easily out in the desert.

So he decided to go into town and find a way to get some money or at least a way to not be so hungry all the time. (Maybe he could hijack one of the Garrison Spedition vehicles that transported the food. Or just look through some trash.)

He went some towns over from the Garrison, he didn‘t want to run into anyone he knew. There he asked at many shops if they could hire him but nobody was interested in a kid without proper education who was only 16. He guessed he had to find a way to make himself look older.

As he went along the many shops he soon reached a building with a wanted sign outside. After a closer look, Keith realized that he was standing in front of a strip club. 

’ _ Weeeell, should I go in or not? I mean,  come on a stripp club?! That was kind of low. From a Garrison fighter pilot to stripper... But, there had been nothing else so far. Maybe they‘re gonna send me away immediately anyways. It is at least worth a try.’ _

To Keith utter shock and delight, they accepted him. Well he might have said that he is eighteen and they didn‘t believe him, but they accepted him in the end nonetheless. Under few conditions naturally.

At least here Keith could use the stuff he had learned with his old owner. Where else could he use the ability to dance on a pole than at a strip club? This might also be the only reason why they took Keith in. With his experience in the field and being no amateur they accepted him. Naturally the club also had a no-touch policy and the workers only worked as strippers on the stage nothing else. Keith was also lucky that it was so far away from the Garrison but still reachable from his little shack. It would have been embarrassing and the most mortifying to meet anyone from the Garrison here, be it instructor or student.

Keith was allowed to start tomorrow night and invited to stay the night so that he didn‘t have to drive back only to come back in a few hours. Keith happily accepted. 

During his first week he was only allowed to watch. Get a feeling for the business and get to know the workers. In the second and third week he started training with the others and serving the drinks during the evenings and nights.

The pay was pretty good and he got some for the beginning after he told them how poor he was, so Keith didn‘t have to worry about food anymore, at least for the next one to two weeks.

The guests and coworkers really liked Keith. It was really amazing how he was more accepted in a strip club than in any school he had ever been. Only a few weeks in, Keith was one of the favorites of the clubs customers. The mysterious aura he had about him also helped quite a lot. Women and men loved Keith‘s moves and how he was moving his body. With a grace rivaled only by the most experienced of the dancers. It was to be expected, after all Keith‘s old master would always punish him if Keith made any mistakes or if his movements weren‘t elegant and graceful enough for his taste. So Keith learned to perfect his moves and how his body was working. Who would have thought that this would be useful someday and the reason he had something to eat on his table. Keith at least didn‘t. At least something from his old life had proven useful. Ironic.

His longer hair and slight curves paired with his lean body was always in favor with the regulars. Through them he had lots of tips and more money to spend for food and other necessities such as a new blanket, that was not full with holes.

* * *

During the time he worked in the club, he started to have the dreams of the flying lions again. It had been some time since he last had them, but now he was having them more than ever. They became more frequent until he was having them every night. After waking up he always had a funny feeling in his stomach. Not really bad but not fully comfortable either, just really restless. Like it was telling him to do something.

After two more months Keith decided it was time to see why he did have those recurring dreams. He reduced his work time - still enough to not starve and have enough for gas - but so much that he could spend some days per week searching in the desert.

With every day he was searching in the desert - he didn‘t even know what he was looking for - the dreams became clearer. Soon he could hear the voice more clearly than ever. It was literally telling him ’ _ to search’ _ , like really?! Hadn‘t he been doing exactly that?! They could at least tell him what he was searching.  


Today he had to stop his search early because he had another shift in the club. Normally he wouldn’t go out into the desert on the days he had to dance, but today was just different. He almost couldn‘t sleep the whole night. His body just didn‘t want to rest. He had a feeling he just  _ had _ to get up and look. 

And now he didn‘t want to leave to go to his job. He had finally achieved something with his searching. He had found some caves with intriguing drawings on the wall. It almost looked like a lion.  _ But that was impossible, right _ _?_ After all, he had been dreaming nearly every night of some lions and now he found a cave with weird pictures.  _ Just how did he end up here? _ If he were to tell that so someone, they would surely stick him into the next nuthouse.

Well nothing to be done here, he just had to come here again later.

* * *

The evening was pretty successful so far, nothing special, just like usual but he received quite a lot of tip. He was sitting at he bar during his break sipping on his nice cold water, when he saw some guys from the Garrison walk in. Naturally, they weren’t in their uniforms, but Keith recognized them nonetheless.  _ What the heck?!?! Why were here students from the Garrison?! _ _And some of them didn‘t even seem to be of age yet! How were they let in?!_ Keith could have sworn that some of them even were in the same year as him before.  _ SHIT!!! _ Keith had to hide himself, but he was soon up next. Damnit! He ran behind the stage, where only workers were allowed and looked for something to hide his identity. What news this would make if somebody were to recognize him

’Garrison‘s ex-piloting prodigy now working as a stripper!’

Oh my god, everybody would laugh at him. Well wasn‘t like they weren‘t already laughing before. But this! This Keith couldn‘t let rest on his ego.  _ No. Thank. You. _

After some rummaging through the box, Keith had an idea on what he should do. He really hoped his co-workers wouldn‘t think he was mad after this. Luckily he only was allowed to only pole dance and not strip.

* * *

Lance was thrilled that he finally could go to a stripp club. Yes he knew that he wasn‘t old enough, yes he knew that they shouldn‘t sneak out of the Garrison grounds, yes he knew Hunk. But all this wouldn‘t stop him. All the others were going too. The older ones helped them forge new IDs that made them 18. Lance had beenin the bathroom for hours looking at himself in the mirror to determine how he could look older than he was. He tried all different kinds of hair styles even tried on some make up. When he decided that he looked awesome he finally left the bathroom, a frazzled Hunk running past him.  
  


”Woah Hunk, calm down, I know you can‘t wait to finally get to meet some strippers, but we still have some time.”

”Shut up Lance! I’ve been waiting in front of that door for over half an hour to finally go to the toilet! You knew that and didn‘t let me it!”

”Sorry Hunk, but beauty needs its sacrifices.” 

”You‘re supposed to sacrifice something not me!! If my bladder in gonna be useless early in life it will be your fault!”  
  


Lance just sighed ”Ohh, Hunky...” he shook his head and went to his bed where his clothes where already laid out. Black pants and a dark blue button down. He would have gone for something more flashy, but sadly he should stay as much under the radar as possible.

When they arrived at the club, Lance didn‘t know if he felt overwhelmed or underwhelmed. It was not like he had always imagined strip-clubs to be. There wasn‘t ear-blasting music and not so much smoke that he couldn‘t even see one meter in front of him, there weren‘t even some sexy ladies to take his jacket from him and bring him to a table. Instead the room was illuminated in dark red tones occasionally changing to violets and blues and the mist was only covering the floor less than half a meter from the ground, the music was at a comfortable volume. Enough to feel the beat but not enough to not hear what your neighbor was saying. It was ... nice, cozy. Lance let himself fall into the chair, pulling Hunk down who was only standing next to him and fidgeting with his shirt, looking nervous to all sides.  
  


”Relax Hunk, nothing will happen. We already successfully sneaked out, so the least you can to is to enjoy whats in front of you.”

”Fine, but for the record, I really think this is a bad idea and if something goes wrong I will tell you-”

” ’ _-I told you so.’_ Yes I know.”  
  


Lance waved away Hunk‘s concern with his hand like a fly and turned to look around the room. Tonight, every seat was filled. They were lucky to still have gotten some. This club was one of the most famous ones. They said the dancers were extraordinary, even though it was not some high class club. But right now there were no dancers to be seen on the stages, the music also had been turned down a bit.

The group were taking their first sips of their beverages when the music picked up again. The lights were focused on the three center stages. Soon two of the dancers were walking out from behind the curtains - left and right. They really were a sight. Those curves would make so many girls at the Garrison jealous. When they were in position the curtain moved again and the third dancer came out. Lance wasn‘t sure if he checked for a moment, because he came back to reality when Hunk was waving his hands in front of his face.   
  


”Hey Lance you okay buddy? You froze for a while there.”  
  


It was true, when Lance looked back to the stage the dancers were already moving to the music.

Lance rubbed at the drool that was running down his chin with the back of his hand and turned back to Hunk. ”Ye-yeah I‘m fine. Just distracted.” Lance turned his gaze back to the beauty on the stage.

It was a young girl with midnight black hair in a short high ponytail. She had a cloth spread over her nose and chin area hiding half of her face from the customers. Short black shorts with a red scarf around her hips flowing down to her left side and a cropped, sleeveless vest that looked like it came right out the movie Aladdin were adorning her body. And even in those high heel she was moving like a goddess. She was more on the flatter side but the lithe body and the muscular thighs were a man’s wet dream. The light was reflecting on her pale sweaty body, making her skin practically glow. And the way she moved on the pole, gosh, Lance couldn‘t take his eyes off. He didn‘t see it but knew that most others were starring exactly like he did. Only a short,  very short, glance to his side could prove his point. Even Hunk didn‘t seem to be immune, and he was normally not interested in stuff like that. He could have sworn her eyes had been exchanged for Amethysts. They were sparkling in the light and when they fell on him, his heart stuttered. Before he realized they had danced for over fifteen minutes and left the stage. Lance really wanted to run after her but Hunk stopped him.

”Hunk what are you doing?”

”Right back at ya buddy. What do you think you’re doing?”  
  
”I‘m following the girl of my dreams.”  
  
”Lance please, don’t. Don‘t even think about it.”  
  
”Why Hunk? I‘m pretty sure that she is my soulmate. I mean have you seen her eyes. They captivated me and now have me as their prisoner.” Lance was nearly swooning on his feet already dreaming of his future with that girl by his side and many little Lances running around.  
  
”You don‘t even know her. You haven‘t even seen her dance for more that fifteen minutes not to mention even her whole face.”  
  
”Fifteen minutes is enough to fall in love.”  
  
”No its not!” Hunk was pulling Lance back down to his seat but still held onto the latter‘s arm.  
  
”And even if it was, what did you want to do? Run after her? Beat all the bodyguards that were standing next to the stage? Letting her call the police on you, only so they could find out that you were not full of age? No sorry Lance, can‘t let you do that. Not only would you get yourself in trouble but everybody who came with us today. Do you want that? No? Thought so.”  
  
”But Hunk I wanna meet her.”  
  
”I‘m sure you do. But there has to be another way instead of running after her. And even if you were to never see her again, there are plenty of girls out there.”  
  
”I guess you‘re right.” Lance deflated and leaned back into his chair slurping the last of his drink.

* * *

’Shit that was close.’ Keith was lucky that his disguise seemed to have worked, none of them had any recognition in their eyes. But he was still concerned. They were looking pretty intensive at him, he really hope that no one saw that it was him. He took off his costume as fast as possible. ’No need to stay here any longer than necessary.’ The faster Keith left the club the safer it would be for him to not be recognized. His shift for the day was over anyways. 

Keith took his bag, slung it over his shoulder and headed for his hoverbike. The whole way he kept his eyes open for anyone who would know him from the Garrison. Luck seemed to be on his side today. No one was to be seen and Keith could quietly drive back to his shed.

* * *

_Keith was lying on his back in the desert when he woke up. The sun had already set and the night sky was in full view. Keith loved the stars._

_His father had always stayed the night out with him. Describing all different constellation. Whenever Keith would ask about his mother, his father would look at the sky with a wistful face, smiling but at the same time looking sad. Keith tried to console the man, saying that he would always stay with him and never leave him. His father would then smile at him and ruffle his hair._

_’You‘re mother would have loved you so much.’_

_’Then why did she go. Where is she?’_

_’Is was really important. She had no choice in that matter. Now, she‘s with the stars.’_

_Later Keith realized that his dad must have said that so that he wouldn‘t so sad about his mother‘s death._

_Now though everything around him seemed to be shrouded in mist. Everything looked the same. The only thing to be seen were the stars in the sky._

_From one moment to the next everything went black, even the stars weren‘t visible anymore. Keith was turning in circles trying to figure out where he was,but with no luck. After some time the wind picked up, ruffling his hair and tugging at his clothings, like it wanted Keith to follow. Not knowing what to do, Keith followed the drag of the wind and let it lead him. Soon he arrives at the bottom of a big canyon. The rock walls were going so far up that he couldn‘t see the top. The wind had stopped and the mist returned._

_When he turned around there was a lion standing only meters in front of him - a blue lion. Why blue? Shouldn‘t lions be more brown or beige. Why were his dreams always so freaky?_

_The wind stilled and he could hear quiet whispers. The more he listened, the louder they became._

_”Find me”_

_”Look for me”_

_”The time will come”_

_”Soon”_

_”Find me”_

_”Close”_

_ Keith now could recognize words but didn‘t know their meaning. Soon the whispers were roaring in his ears. So loud that Keith had to shield his ears. It sounded like static, he suspected that if they didn‘t stop, his eardrums would burst. The noise became so overwhelming that his view began to blacken around the edges. Before he could lose consciousness,  he woke up gasping for breath and sweating. _

”What the fuck?! What kind of dream was that?!”

He pulled the blankets back and got out of bed. He pulled off his sweaty shirt and went to his shower. That everything was still working was really a mystery. But Keith would take it as it is, occasionally checking everything to avoid suddenly sitting here in the dark without water, but so far everything had been ’livable’. 

After he was done, he made himself a minimalistic breakfast and a coffee. His shower hadn‘t done much to properly wake him up and get him back to reality. His dream had been echoing in his head the whole time. 

He was gonna find whatever that weird energy was. At first he had not been sure if it wasn‘t just his imagination, but after finding the cave some time ago, he was 100% sure that something was out there. Since then he had been there some more times, but never found anything that gave him clues to what exactly he was looking at. He went already as far as he could into the cave but only came to a dead end. Today Keith had planned to look around the cave if he could find something similar like that cave with the drawings. So when he had eaten he packed his back with food, water and other necessities and headed out. The sun was still nice on his skin but soon it would become unbearable and Keith would have to find some shade. Hopefully he would have searched a little until then.  


Nothing. So far he had found nothing around that special cave. No other cave, no other drawings, not even the color blue somewhere. Keith was sitting in the entrance to the cave, sipping from his water and thinking about his next steps. Maybe he should try going further back again, maybe he had overseen a small opening - it was pretty dark in here after all - or he should try going further up, find a way on top of the cliffs and look there. Taking a bite from his granola bar, he decided to first try looking for an opening again. Right now it was too hot outside. The midday sun would surely grill him on top of the canyon. With a last sip, he got up and put his stuff back in his bag.  
When he came back out he copied some of the drawings in his notebook. Guessing by the positon of the sun, it had to be around three pm, enough time to look for a way up and be home before it got too cold. He had enough time the next day to explore the tops. If he went there early he could be done before the sun was too strong. With a plan in mind, he got on his hoverbike and started driving at a slow pace to not overlook something. After about ten minutes he found he way up. Pondering if he should bring his hoverbike, he decided against it and began the hike to the top.  
He had been looking for over 4 hours when the sun started setting. Logically, he should now leave while he could still see where he was going, but the emotional side decided against it. So he stayed for about another hour watching the sunset. This really was one of the best places to sit and watch, just like the place he would always stay with Shiro...- Keith shook his head, no, he had to keep a clear mind. He still had dangerous way home. It was getting darker and darker and Keith had to watch out where he was going if he didn‘t want to fall to his death. When he arrived at the bottom, the stars where already out. Loving the view, Keith took much longer to get back to the shack than he would normally need. After his dinner and shower he climbed on the roof a gazed at the sky.  
He shot upright, nearly falling off the roof when he realized that he had fallen asleep. He groaned, rubbed his eyes and finally went inside. Only the did he realize that he was freezing. He went to bed and piled every blanket he possessed on top of his body, creating a little pile on his bed. Only then did he fall asleep again.


	7. New events

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I‘ve been thinking... should Shiro stay a wolf-hound or rather be a husky? I think both kinda fit
> 
> So well, a new chapter!! Here starts cannon!

In this whole year for the first time since his saving, he had begun to slowly get back his Courage to transform. Not in front of people, but the courage to trust himself again, that no one was there to control him anymore. No one to force him to shift, no, just to shift whenever he felt like it. It was quite difficult, trauma and years out of practice. At first is was crushing. The pressure, the memories, the knowledge of punishment. It all was too much for him to handle. So he began slow. At night before bed. Or in the mornings after he woke up and stayed in bed for a while. He had been shifting little parts of himself. At first his claws, extending them and retracting them, always slow, one for one, until he could easily get them out to cut stuff like food. After that he practiced with his ears. What he always wondered was why they looked different from the pictures, even from the real deal in the zoo he had visited with Matt and Shiro. His were not as rounded as a panther‘s but more like a house cat‘s with a slightly pointed tip. He still didn’t know, but they were useful. He especially was using them when he went hunting in the desert. It was so much easier to hear other animals than with his human ears, even if they were already better than the average human‘s. The next thing was his tail. This had been more difficult because it was directly affecting his movements. His balance was much better and he even could use the tail to grab for things. After some time everything became easier and easier. He wasn‘t afraid anymore. Naturally he was still careful. The Garrison with their scientists wasn‘t too far from here. He bet they wouldn‘t think kindly of it if a big cat of prey was strolling along their perimeter. He was extremely glad that they never got suspicious when he was still a cadet. Never asked for medical scans or questioned his history. Ok, maybe Keith had a hand in that, that he never went to any examinations he could avoid or just acted like they coundn‘t do certain stuff to him. But most of the time Keith just disappeared and Shiro covered for him. Even if he didn‘t even knew what he covered for, but he believed in Keith that it was the right thing to do.  
But there where times when Keith just didn‘t care. He would drive to the canyon and shift. Next to flying it was the best feeling to run as fast as he could on four legs, feeling the wind in his fur. This was never something he had experienced, always being kept inside. So Keith fully used his new freedom, freedom he never had. Not with the facility, not with his master, not in the care-center, not with the foster families and especially not with the Garrison. He was racing along the stream and jumping from rock to rock, sometimes even climbing the vertical walls. With each time he strengthened his musculature, making him stronger and faster. Some nights he even stayed outside, huddled into an indentation in the stone wall waiting for prey. It was fun. To use all his senses, to go beyond his limits, it was exhilarating.

* * *

It had been around a year since shiro‘s presumed death, when Keith was tossing and turning in his bed. His dreams had robbed him of sleep the past weeks. Either he had dreams of those lions and the voice or he had nightmares. Most of the time it would depict Keith in the facility or with his old owner, being mistreated and tortured. The other times he would dream of Shiro. It would start all happy, Shiro, Matt and Keith, sometimes also Adam being together, but it would soon turn into a nightmare. They would leave him, telling him that he was worthless. In the end, Keith was always left behind, all alone. After that he would wake up covered in sweat, sometimes even shaking.

And now he couldn‘t even fall asleep. He didn‘t know if he was grateful of not. But Keith prefered sleep to no sleep. Something was keeping him awake, the restless feeling in his stomach was stronger than ever. So he got up and prepared himself. He didn‘t know for what of what he would need, but he knew that something was different, something was happening tonight. The voice had been running amok the last night. He packed everything he thought he might need; binocular, explosions, water, rope, his knife - he had found it in a drawer in his father‘s old room. Keith faintly remembered that it was important and once belonged to his mother, so now he kept it on his body at all times. He had a bag ready next to him, now he was sitting on his roof again, the calm of the desert at night surrounding him. Every now and then he would hear a coyote howling in the distance. The night sky was clear and the stars visible, a red dot growing bigger-...  _ Wait what?! A red dot?  _ A comet? No that wasn‘t possible. If Keith were to guess it would look like a space ship. And its heading towards here! Keith waited a little more with baited breath. Trying to keep himself sitting to figure out where it will land. After some waiting, Keith decided that the direction was clear enough and jumped off the roof, grabbed his backpack and ran towards his hoverbike, speeding to the unknown object.  _ This must be it. What I was feeling so jittery about. This object will give me some answers. _

When he arrived at the scene, the Garrison had already taken control of the situation. A distraction would be necessary. Taking one final glance at the place, Keith turned around to plant the explosions at the right places. When he was near enough to the tent, the Garrison had erected he pushed the button to set off all explosions. He watched the personell drive off, leaving the tent without guards when he made his move. He had put a scarf over his face and pulled out his knife from his back when he entered the tent. There where still some scientists left at the scene and a person bound to the table. Keith had to calm himself first before he triggered a flashback. All of this looked too much like what he had went through. He closed his eyes for a short moment, took a deep breath and let it slowly out.  
  
’ _Those are not the people who have hurt you. You are not the small kid from back then. You can do this. They don‘t know what or who you are. Deep breaths. Patience yields focus.’  
_  
Keith was repeating inside his head. All to soon, they realized that he had enternd and were about to send him away and call for security. When they ran towards him, Keith got into fighting position had caught the first one‘s arm, pulling it behind his back before pushing him away into the equipment. The second one similarly, he pulled him over his shoulder and threw him against the wall. When the third came towards him he overpowered him by a swift kick to his side, strong enough to send him careening to the side but not break anything. When all of them were lying unconscious on the ground he ran towards the strapped-down person.  
When he pulled his face to look at him-  
  
” _Shiro_?!”  
  
It- it was Shiro. But how? And why had the Garrison strapped him down? He understood, yeah sure alien ship, space, dead and whatever, but this was Shiro. The Galaxy Garrison‘s Golden Boy. Why would they treat him like a specimen? Urgh, doesn‘t matter now. Saving now, questions later. He cut his bindings with his knife and pulled him upright by his arm off the table and over his shoulder. Just as he was about to go, the door opened again and in came-  
-students? What?! No, wait, the guy was saying something....  


”Nope. No, you— No,no,no. No, you don‘t. I‘m saving Shiro.”

_ Who was that guy? Why were they even here? As he remembered the Garrison, they should have put a lock down on the academie. And outsiders were absolutely forbidden here.  
_   
”Who are you?

”Who am I? Uh, the name‘s Lance.”

_ The guy said it like Keith should know him. He didn‘t know any guy named Lance. He only looked kinda like this one guy in his class before he got booted out. But as far he rememebered that Guy‘s name wasn‘t Lance. It was something like Tally, or so.  
_   
”We were in the same class in the Garrison.”

_ Hmm, maybe they were twins? _

”Really? Are you an engineer?”

”No, I‘m a pilot! We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck.”

_ Maybe his second name was Taylor... _

”Oh, wait. I remember you. You‘re a cargo pilot.”

”Well not anymore. I‘m fighter class now, thanks to you washing out.”

Nice _to know were his place went after he was gone - not._

”Well, congratulations.”

Together they got Shiro out of the tent. The other two were telling them to speed up a little because the Garrison staff was coming back. Without any warning all of them climbed onto his bike. Damnit, he hadn‘t planed for this many people. Why were they even here? If they wanted to save Shiro, they should have had a plan on their own and not just storming in! Keith was nearly thrown from his seat when the big guy sat down. 

”Is this thing gonna be big enough for all of us?”

”No.”

This way, they would never outrun the Garrison‘s vehicles.

”Can‘t this thing go any faster?”

”We could toss out some non-essential weight.”

”Oh right.”

Was this guy for real?! How did he get into fighter class like this.

”Okay, so that was an insult.”

Wow, he‘s fast.  _Can you feel the sarcasm?_ - ”Big man, lean left!.”

At least they could use this situation for their advantage. Keith wasn‘t without reason the best pilot in the Garrison.

By doing some maneuvers they were able to lose their pursuers one by one. And Keith already saw a chance how he could lose the last ones.

”Gu-gu-gu-guys? Is that a cliff up ahead?”

”No, no, no, no, no.!” All of them were crying like little children.

”Yup.”

When Keith drove over the edge, the only thing that saved his eardrums from bursting because of the screaming was the wind blowing past him.

”What are you doing? You‘re going to kill us all!”

”Shut up and trust me!”

Just like Shiro had taught him and practiced it, he nailed the descent and drove off, their pursuers still on top of the cliff.

Without any other incident, they arrived at his little shack when the sky just started getting brighter. ’ _Great, now he had three other kids, who were from the Garrison with him here. Why did they even follow him?! Now the Garrison wasn‘t only searching for one guy but four.’_   
They piled off the bike and carried the still unconscious Shiro inside. He took them from their hands to get him upstairs himself. No reason to let them sniff around in his home.  
”I got this, you guys, stay down here.”

He had gotten Shiro upstairs and laid him on his bed. This was when he could get his first good look at the the older man. He didn‘t look all that great. He had dark circles under his eyes, more worry lines than before and part of his hair had become white. Presumably because of stress. But the most noticeable things were the big scar horizontally over his nose and the metallic prosthetic, that used to be his right arm. Keith winced.  ’ _What happened to you, Shiro?’_ . He really didn‘t want to know how he got the scar but could already guess what could have caused it. He really hoped that that wasn‘t the case. But it looked too deep to be caused by a muzzle and much to clean cut. It was more likely to have been inflicted by a blade or knife. He had dark violet rags on. Keith went to look through his stuff in hopes to find anything that might fit Shiro, but without luck. There was somewhere were he could look, where he hadn‘t been in all those years.  
He went along the hall to a closed door. He had never opened his father’s room since he had been taken from this house. But this wasn‘t about him or his father but about Shiro, who had just come back from the dead, after having been lost in space for almost a year.  
When he found something that might fit Shiro he went back to his own room. Shiro had yet to wake up. So Keith laid the clothes next to the bed, went downstairs to get something to drink for when he would wake up. Meanwhile he looked after the other cadets. They had piled onto his ratty couch. He rummaged through his cupboard for some spare blankets and pillows and brought them over.

”I guess you‘re not going to go back now, right? I don‘t have anything you could comfortably sleep on, so you‘ll just have put up with this.” He gave them the blankets and pillows and turned around. Still in earshot, he could hear Lance mumbling behind him.

”Pff, never heard of hospitality, heh. Could have given us something nicer to sleep on....” Keith just rolled his eyes on his way upstairs.  
”Lance shut up, we just barged into that guys home. What do you expect? A welcoming party?” The little one at least understood what situation they were in.

Back in his room, he sat down in the chair he had put next to his bed and waited for Shiro so wake up. He hoped that that didn‘t look as creepy as that just sounded. While waiting he realized how tired he had become. The whole rescue mission and a night without sleep added to the nightmare that plagued him the night before, Keith soon succumbed to sleep, laying his head down onto the mattress. 

When he woke back up, the sun had just begun to rise. But the bed he had been sleeping next to was empty. Keith looked around and noticed that the clothes were gone and the glass empty. Before panic could fully seize him and his thoughts leading him to think that everything was just some crazy dream again, he saw the rags Shiro had previously worn stuck in the trash. Keith got up and looked out of the window. And there he was. A black shadow was standing on top of the small hill overlooking the desert. Keith turned around and jogged down the stairs, before he could make even more noise, he remembered the Garrison Cadets that had stayed the night. They were still sleeping scattered on the floor and couch. So on quiet feet he went to the door and outside. There he could see that the Silhouette was Shiro. Slowly and with louder steps as to announce his presence, he walked on top of the hill. When he reached him he laid his hand on the older‘s shoulder.

”It‘s good to have you back.” Keith had seemed successful in his trial to not startle Shiro, the other just turned around and smiled at him. He really had missed him. He still couldn‘t believe that Shiro was back and alive. 

”It‘s good to be back.”

”So, what happened out there? Where were you?”

”I wish I could tell you. My head‘s still pretty scrambled. I was on an alien ship, somehow I escaped. It‘s all a blur. How did you know to come save me when I crashed?”  
  
_ Ok, and here starts the complicated matter of explaining the stuff that happened the past year to someone. _

”You should come see this.”  
  


The small one seemed to have woken up while they were outside. When the two of them came back in, they hit their companions, so that they would wake up. After some trial and error they finally came back to the living, even if not without complains about being woken up.  
  
When all of them were awake and paying attention, Keith walked towards his little board he had created. It was full with notes, pictures, maps and articles.

”What have you been working on?”

”I can‘t explain it, really. But after getting booted from the garrison,” Keith winced not wanting to look at Shiro and seeing his disappointed expression, he continued, ”I was kind of lost and found myself drawn out to this place. It‘s like something... something was telling me to search.”

”For what?”

”Well, I didn‘t really know at the time... until I stumbled across this area. It‘s an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings. Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion, but they all share clues leading to some event, some arrival happening last night. Then you showed up.”  


”I should thank you all for getting me out. Lance, right?” Lance showed some hesitation in shaking Shiro‘s right arm, but did it in the end.

”The nervous guy‘s Hunk. I‘m Pidge. So, did anyone else from your crew make it out?”

”I‘m not sure. I remember the mission and being captured. After that, it‘s just bits and pieces.”

”Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for us? Like, where are they at this very moment?”  _ Yep, that guy was definitely the nervous one.  _

”I can‘t really put it together. I remember the word ’Voltron’. It‘s some kins of weapon they‘re looking for, but I don‘t know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do.”

”Well last night, I was rummaging trough Pidge‘s stuf, and found this picture. Look it‘s his girlfriend.”  _ His girlfriend? But this looks like Matt and not this Pidge... well no, they  do look similar. But the other one was Katie Holt.  Keith was even there when they did this picture.  So that must mean,...ohhh. Yeah makes sense. That guy didn‘t smell like a boy at all. _

”Hey gimme that! What were you doing with my stuff?”

”I was looking for a candy bar. But, then, I started reading his diary.”

”What?!”

”And I noticed the repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line.

”Frown who?”  _ Somewhere he had heard of that name before, what was it? Urg, he doesn‘t remember. Seems like at that time it seemed unimportant for Keith. _

”It‘s a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only this element doesn‘t exist on earth. I thought it might be this Voltron. And I think I can built a machine to look for it. Kinda like a Voltron Geiger counter.

”Hunk, you big, gassy genius!“

”It‘s pretty fascinating, really. The wavelength looks like this.”

Wait a moment, those lines, where had he seen them, oh-

”Gimme that!”

They look the same! The caves he had been exploring! Hunk‘s guess pointed to the exact same thing. There must be much more to those drawings on the wall.  _ He knew it! The thing he was looking for must be this Voltron! _


	8. The Blue Lion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day! It is pretty short. So this is the last chapter of the second part.  
> I‘m already working on the third but I have some problems integrating my story into cannon. Till now I only have some one-shots that are playing in the future and two chapters but thats about it.  
> I have read lots of awesome fanfiction where the author recreates cannon and I absolutely love them. I just try to not copy anything they had as an idea and it is difficult. SO it could take some time until the third part comes out ( at least more than two chapters)
> 
> OK this chapter is pretty much only dialog from the show. (All rights belong to DW).Why did I even write all of this down? I guess my problem was to find a fitting place to stop but never found it *shrugs*. Now you just have to live with the result.

”Okay, I admit it. This is super freaky.”

The five young humans were standing before the canyon walls . They were all waiting in excitement while Hunk was calibrating their readings. Keith had been here already a thousand times. Each day going around this place to find out more.

”I‘m getting a reading.” Hunk was storming up ahead, right towards the cave, Keith had found the drawings in.  
When they entered they were shown the same sights Keith had been researching for months.

”Woah.”

”What are these?”

”These are the lion carvings I was telling you about. They‘re everywhere around here.”  
The group was looking around in the cave inspecting the drawings of the lions.

”Hmm. Whoa. whoa!” The ground started shaking as soon as Lance wiped his hand across one drawing. Then they started to glow in a bright blue color.

”What?”

”They‘ve never done that before.” Before they could realize what would happen, the ground broke and all of them were free falling. They were sliding along some water, before the tunnel ended and they were falling into a small creak. Surprisingly when they climbed out of it, their clothes weren‘t wet. And in front of them stood a massive blue grey machine that looked like a cat.

”They are everywhere.”

”Is this it? Is this the Voltron?”

”It must be.” All of them were starring in absolute bafflement at the huge robot. Keith wanted to immediately get a closer look, so he jogged towards it. He got he feeling he recognized it from somewhere, all this was feeling really familiar.

”This is what‘s been causing all this crazy energy out here. Looks like there‘s a force field around it.” 

”Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?”

”Ehm, no.”

”Yeah, the eyes are totally following me.”

The force field was rippling under his finger but felt completely solid. ”I wonder how we get through this.”

”Maybe you just have to knock.”  ’ _Really Lance, knocking? On a force field?’  
_ Unbelievably, the force field did lower after Lance knocked on it.  ’ _They can‘t be for real...!?’_

As soon as the force field was down, all of them saw five lion robots combining into one humanly shaped robot through a vision.

”Woah”

”Did everyone just see that?”

”Voltron is a robot. Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!”

”And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are.”

”This is what they‘re looking for.”

”Incredible.” It really was. Just how did they end up in this situation.  
Judging by Lance expression he just had a really dumb idea. Before anyone could react, Lance had stormed into the lions head and sat down in the cockpit on the pilot‘s chair. Keith hesitated to follow him. They didn‘t know what would happen then. A new situation without any information was never good. And all of them squeezed into a tiny cockpit wasn‘t really what he wanted. But after everyone went into the lion‘s head, he had no other choice but to follow.

”Okay, guys, I feel the need to point out, just so that we‘re all, you know, aware. We‘re in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now.”

”Woah. Did you guys just hear that?”

”Hear what?”

”I think it‘s talking to me.” Lance was pushing a lot of button, he didn‘t even know what they did.  _ Why did this guy have to be the pilot?  _ Keith was really scared that all of them would soon be grilled because Lance couldn‘t keep his hands to himself.

”Ok, got it. Now, let‘s try this.” They could barely grab on to something before Lance was catapulting them forwards resulting in the rest of them nearly flying into the walls. Keith was hanging on for dear life when the lion started doing sommer-saults in the air and taking jerky turns.

”You are the worst pilot ever!”

”Isn‘t this awesome?”  ’ _No Lance! It‘s not!!’_

”Make it stop. Make it stop.” Hunk looked like he was about to loose his breakfast right next to Keith. He really hoped that guy would follow through.

”I‘m not making it do anything. It‘s like it‘s on autopilot.” The lion flew into a steep up-climb. Soon all they could see was the dark of space. 

”Where are you going?!”

”I just said it‘s on autopilot! It says there‘s an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we‘re supposed to stop it.”

”What did it say, exactly?”

”Well, it‘s not like it‘s saying words. It‘s more feeding ideas into my brain, kind of.”  ’ _Lance was kidding them, right? All right, where is the camera? Could he please wake up now?’_

”Well, if this is the weapon they‘re coming for, why don‘t we just, I don‘t know, give it to them? Maybe they‘ll leave us alone. Sorry lion, nothing personal.”

”You don‘t understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There is no bargaining with them. They won‘t stop until everything is dead.” All of them were looking at Hunk with some kind of disappointed glare.

”Oh. Never mind then.”

Soon they had left Earth and were flying among the stars. Before they could even take a good look, a giant black-purple ship was appearing in front of them.

”Holy crow, is that really an alien ship?”

”They found me.” Shiro was whispering next to him. He had to hold himself back not to hug all the bad feeling out of him here and now. 

”We got to get it out of here!”

”Hang on!”

”All right. Okay, I think I know what to do.”

”Be careful, man. This isn‘t a simulator.”

”Well, that‘s good. I always wreck the simulator.”

_ Wait. What?! _

”Let‘s try this.” A big laser beam was shot towards the alien ship. After some more shots they had it destroyed enough to flee.

”Nice job, Lance.”

”Okay, I think it‘s time to get these guys away from our planet.”

They were flying among the stars, but before long the alien ship was back and following them.

”Oh, no!”

”They‘re gaining on us.”

”It‘s weird. They‘re not trying to shoot us. They‘re just chasing.”

”Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good? I am not onboard with this new direction, guys.”

”Where are we?”

”Edge of the solar system. There‘s Kerberos.”

”It takes months for our ships to get out this far. We got out here in five seconds.”

This was amazing, just what had they stumbled across? An alien ship that could reach the edge of their solar system in mere seconds? That was so much more advanced that anything Earth had ever created.  
  
While trying to escape the aliens, a big blue black ring was appearing in front of them.

”What is that?”

”This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there.”

”Where does it go?”  
”I don‘t know. Shiro, you‘re the senior officer here. What should we do?”

”Whatever is happening. The lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we‘re a team now. We should decide together.”

”All right. Guess we‘re all ditching class tomorrow.”

Having decided together, the lion together with its five human occupants drifted through the black space just before the other ship could reach them.

”Whoa. That was...” Hunk was leaning to the side and following on his earlier thread. Oh gosh, this really wasn‘t something Keith had wanted to experience. The smell was absolutely nauseating with his fine nose. Being in such narrow space with four others wasn‘t helping in the least. 

”So, sorry.”

”I‘m just surprised it took so long.”

”I don‘t recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth.”

”The lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think, I think it‘s going home.”

In front of them was a new planet that looked pretty similar to Earth with its many green and light brow tones. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if anybody has an idea what tags I could add, feel free to tell me because I have absolutely no idea what I could put in there


End file.
